Alouettes 34 — Red and Black 30 | Confirmed place in the playoffs

It wasn’t easy, but the Alouettes earned their bye to the playoffs by winning, 34-30, against the Rouge et Noir on Friday night in Ottawa.

Miguel Bujold
The Press

The Rouge et Noir had lost 21 of its last 22 games at TD Place. However, playing immensely more inspired football since Bob Dyce replaced Paul LaPolice as head coach, he has provided strong opposition for the Birds, who will finish first in the East Division if they win their last two games against the Toronto Argonauts.

If they succeed, the Alouettes (8-8) will be granted a bye in the first round of the playoffs and will host the Eastern Final at Percival-Molson Stadium on November 13. If they lose one of their two games against the Argos, it is instead the Eastern semi-final that will be played in Montreal on November 6.

After surprising the Alouettes with a 45-yard pass from receiver Ryan Davis early in the game, the Rouge et Noir took a 7-0 lead thanks to a touchdown from Siaosi Mariner, who was playing his first game in the CFL. The Als defense quickly made amends by scoring the team’s first major themselves. Tackle Thomas Costigan knocked the ball off quarterback Nick Arbuckle, and Adarius Pickett recovered it for a 16-yard touchdown.

Arbuckle restored the lead with a pinpoint 35-yard pass to Tevaun Smith, who beat cornerback Mike Jones. One of the club’s fine defensive players this season, Jones allowed the Rouge et Noir’s first two touchdowns on Friday night.

Effective response

Thanks to a good comeback from Chandler Worthy, who has been rather discreet since a great start to the season, Montreal reduced the local lead with a field goal from David Côté, but after a quarter, Ottawa was leading 10-3 in the first games column and 207-48 in yards.

Reserve quarterback Caleb Evans scored the Rouge et Noir’s third touchdown early in the second quarter to make it 21-10, but a superb play from Walter Fletcher allowed the Alouettes to fight back quickly.

After catching a short pass from Trevor Harris, Fletcher managed to stay inside the field and raced along the sidelines for a 40-yard touchdown.

In his second game since returning, William Stanback carried the ball 9 times for 34 yards and scored the touchdown that gave his team a first-time lead, 27-24, in the third quarter. Fletcher is the ideal running back to complement Stanback’s power runs and will definitely be part of the equation over the next few weeks.

Lewis Ward had restored the Rouge et Noir’s lead, 30-27, with two field goals and the Alouettes were heading for a second loss in five days against a team that had won only three times until a year ago. week.

Danny Maciocia’s players instead showed good strength of character by finding a way to seek victory in the last minutes of play.

Worthy first signed his second good return, which positioned the Als at the Ottawa 21 line. Harris was able to get a first down with a brave 4-yard run later on that would ultimately lead to Dominique Davis’ game-winning one-yard touchdown, his 12^e of the season.

Arbuckle and the Rouge et Noir got two more possessions in the final minutes, but quarterback fighter Jamal Davis ended their playoff hopes with a sack in a 3-1 situation. The Rouge et Noir is officially eliminated following his 12^e defeat in 2022.

A reassuring victory

Given the way he played this week against the Alouettes, one wonders what kind of season the Rouge et Noir would have had if he had replaced LaPolice with Dyce earlier.

For the Alouettes, this is a reassuring victory. Harris had no interceptions for the fourth straight game and once again completed over 70% of his passes (19 of 27 for 241 yards and a touchdown).

In his first start as a replacement for Reggie White Jr., rookie Tyson Philpot led the team with 7 catches and 76 yards. The ground game and special teams produced key plays, while the defense stood out with a touchdown and closing the door late in the game. A great team victory.

And that’s how the Alouettes can be successful in the coming weeks. They don’t really have a big strength, but they don’t have a major weakness either. Very clever who could predict what awaits this team over the next month.